Isaac interviews this LA photo local. From Cypress Hill to his upcoming film on the tattoo artist Mr Cartoon.

Interview by Isaac McKay-Randozzi

Asking questions to people that you've never met face to face is an interesting thing. In this day you can contact just about anyone via email. After asking Rob Abeyta for the a little help, we contacted Mr. Oriol and asked him some questions about his photography, life, sox, Devo, Chia pets and going from bouncer to video director and to upcoming film director on the life of Mr. Cartoon.

Why photography? Why not a mechanic or a stockbroker?
I just fell into it touring with Cypress Hill taking snap shots of touring on the road, then coming home taking flicks of lowriding cause I was in a car club.

Do you think growing up in that type of environment affected the way you shoot?
I just shot what I was used to seeing and knew how it should look.

What was the most valuable thing you learned from your parents?
Work hard and be grateful.

You were a club bouncer, tour manager for House of Pain, a DJ, and you and Everlast had a clothing company before you got into photography. Looking back on it, do you see it as a natural progression, a series of happenstance events that lead you into what you are doing now, or a combination?
Yeah it all was a steppingstone for where I am now. Doing the Not Guilty clothing with Everlast and my homie Lucky, got my feet wet to do Joker Clothing now and for the past 10 years. I needed to do it all to be where I am today.

I'm guessing photography lead you to directing videos, how did that happen?
I told B Real-Cypress Hill, to direct the first video for his side group called the Psycho Realm, because at that time Dre and Cube were co-directing their videos putting there name in the credits, so B told me, "I rap, you should direct it, your the camera dude." So him and the 2 guys in the group Jacken and Duke told the label they wanted me to do direct the first one. Then the second, then two for Muggs' side project Soul Assassins. 1 for Sen's side project SX10 and so and so on, to now doing the Transplants and Blink 182 videos and getting a 3 picture deal with Universal/Imagine. The 1st movie being about Cartoon based on true events called Ink. For videos I'm working with www.hsiproductions.com.

How often do you have to travel as part of shooting videos?
I try to travel a couple times a year because I don't tour anymore, after 13 years on the road the bands I was touring with don't really tour anymore. Whenever I can travel and work at the same time I'm down with that, it's kinda like a paid vacation.

Have you been able to take photos outside of the video shoot setting during your travels?
Yeah, whenever we do location scouting or time off, I bust out the AE 1 and go take flicks. The Pentax I usually leave at home its to big to carry everywhere and its a hassle. If I could I would shoot everything with the AE. People don't trip out as much when you have the AE 1, when they see that Pentax come out, it's like pulling your dick out, they say, "oh shit what is that?"

Do you go into the darkroom much?
I have a few times but its too much drama for me its an art form all in its self. I'd rather use that time to hustle more work. I have A.D.D. I can't be stuck in those little rooms for hours.

Do you shoot digital?
If I have to. To me it's not there yet.

What's your stance on the digital vs. film debate?
I'll take film any day, and maybe because I don't know enough about digital but oh well.

How did you first hook up with Mr. Cartoon?
We met through a friend we had in common through lowriding who was also in the music business. His name was Donnie Charles (R.I.P.) aka D.C. At that time he was the manager of a group called W.C. and The Mad Circle, which featured W.C. From Westside Connection and Coolio. We met at the record release party for Penthouse Players in 1992, and kept in touch and now we're best friends, compadres and business partners in S.A. Studios and www.jokerbrand.com.

How long have you known him?
13 years and still going strong. What's important in our success is that we communicate we never argue or get our feelings hurt we just talk like men and get through it.

Who are the Soul Assassins? And what part does SA Studios play?
The Soul Assassins are a group of artists. We have people in movie and film, photography, fashion, music, commercial and fine art. S.A. Studios is the art department; we do video direction and production, design (CD layouts, clothing, etc.), graphics, photography, events and tattoos. Joker does the fashion, Scotty Caan and myself work in the film industry, Cypress, Alchemist, Chace and Rob Aston handle the music and we have homies like Lucky doing sales for famous SAS, Trevelen with Super Co. Customs building choppers, to name a few.

How long have you known Rob Abeyta and what aspect of SA Studios does he handle?
A few years, he does spiritual advising, design, graphics, art shows and right now working presently on designing the Ink book.

You've shot a lot of different hip-hop celebrities, who has been your favorite to shoot?
I like a lot of them 99% of them are cool as fuck, there are a few I've done a few shoots with so we have a better relationship.

How is INK book progressing?
I'm in the selecting the print stage and then it goes to the scanning and then designing. I've been printing about 200 prints got another 200 to go. The movie is in the hiring the writer stage. We got a good one there, it's up to the studios to greenlight it now.

With more personal projects, like "Ink" has the subject of creativity vs. marketability come up?
As far as the books goes we're doing it the way we want to that's how that deal was set up, with the movie since the studio is putting up a lot of money of course they want to make money but they don't want it to comprise the film and the authenticity.

That's good to hear. Authenticity is the one thing that seems to get sacrificed in most film projects. Do you think that because of your relationship with Mr. Cartoon you will have a friendly perspective on him? Are you going to show all aspects of the man, good and bad?
Oh yeah for sure you will see all sides of him, This isn't going to be PG version or Disney Cartoon. This is about Mr. Cartoon from the sickside. We both know that people want to see it all. They don't want the candy coated shit, unless it's a paint job for their ride.

Do you drink? If so, what's you favorite beer?
I don't drink anymore but when I did I would drink whatever scotch. Beer to crystal in the club, I didn't care about the brand name or the taste I just wanted to get fuckin' smashed. Its not a party till the handcuffs go on.

If your house was on fire and all of your family was safely out, what one thing would you save from the flames?
My photos and negs, everything else is replaceable with insurance or buy the shit again. I can't go all over the world or back in time and take these photos again.

As you get older, do you think your photography subjects will change? In 20 years are we going to see a book of landscapes by you?
A lil here and there, I'm pretty much sticking with the hardcore shit and fine broads, if I get old enough to do landscapes I hope I retire at that point. I think Ansel Adams did it perfect, I cant see anybody doing it different so it would be better.

Where is Mr. Estevan Oriol in 20 years?
I'll be Araki's age probably as sick in the head as him.

What are you working on right now?
A gang of shit, a few videos, a documentary, photo shoots, and Joker, then my 4 kids my life outside of all this work.

What do you do to relax?
Ride my Harley or take my 47 Fleetline for a drive.

Striped or plain sox?
Plain white, and not those broad ones that everyone is wearing with the little balls cut off.

What's the best part about living where you live?
It's like "Leave it to Beaver" neighborhood. I never hear gunshots at night.

The worst?
The drive to work in the fucking traffic.

How much of the criminal element do you deal with? Or have you dealt with when you were a bouncer?
On a daily basis just not as much as I use to when I was younger. I live in L.A.

Do you think Devo is over-rated?
No they get their respect from me they worked hard and did their thing.

What's your favorite Devo song?
Are we not men, we are Devo.

Had you ever heard of Fecal Face Dot Com before this interview?
No, but that doesn't mean anything.

Do you consider yourself an artist, or someone who makes their living doing artistic things? Do you see a separation between the two?
Both, to me it's the same you can be an artist and make money doing your artistic things.

I saw a photo of you at the SA Studios show at Fifty24SF and my first reaction was, "Shit, wouldn't want to piss that cat off!" Do others have this reaction and if so do you find it a hindrance or a benefit in your work?
Yeah it fucks me a little but I don't mean no harm, I'm just trying to work and do my thing.

What music have you been listening to lately?
The Mars Volta, At The Drive-In, young Jeezy, Paul Wall, Led Zepplin.

Do Chia pets make good gifts?
To who? Who the fuck wants those?

If you had five minutes with President Bush, what would you say or do?
I'd say, "Are you for real homes?"

Any thank yous of fuck yous?
Thank you to everyone who supported me, and all of our stuff we couldn't have done it with out your support. Thank you to all the haters you only make us stronger.

We haven't been featuring many interviews as of late. Let's change that up as we check in with a few local San Francisco artists like Kevin Earl Taylor here whom we studio visited back in 2009 (PHOTOS & VIDEO). It's been awhile, Kevin...

If you like guns and boobs, head on over to the Shooting Gallery; just don't expect the work to be all cheap ploys and hot chicks. With Make Stuff by Peter Gronquist (Portland) in the main space and Morgan Slade's Snake in the Eagle's Shadow in the project space, there is plenty spectacle to be had, but if you look just beyond it, you might actually get something out of the shows.

Fifty24SF opened Street Anatomy, a new solo show by Austrian artist Nychos a week ago last Friday night. He's been steadily filling our city with murals over the last year, with one downtown on Geary St. last summer, and new ones both in the Haight and in Oakland within the last few weeks, but it was really great to see his work up close and in such detail.

Congrats on our buddies at Needles and Pens on being open and rad for 11 years now. Mission Local did this little short video featuring Breezy giving a little heads up on what Needles and Pens is all about.

Matt Wagner recently emailed over some photos from The Hellion Gallery in Tokyo, who recently put together a show with AJ Fosik (Portland) called Beast From a Foreign Land. The gallery gave twelve of Fosik's sculptures to twelve Japanese artists (including Hiro Kurata who is currently showing in our group show Salt the Skies) to paint, burn, or build upon.

Backwoods Gallery in Melbourne played host to a huge group exhibition a couple of weeks back, with "Gold Blood, Magic Weirdos" Curated by Melbourne artist Sean Morris. Gold Blood brought together 25 talented painters, illustrators and comic artists from Australia, the US, Singapore, England, France and Spain - and marked the end of the Magic Weirdos trilogy, following shows in Perth in 2012 and London in 2013.

San Francisco based Fecal Pal Jeremy Fish opened his latest solo show Hunting Trophies at LA's Mark Moore Gallery last week to massive crowds and cabin walls lined with imagery pertaining to modern conquest and obsession.

Well, John Felix Arnold III is at it again. This time, he and Carolyn LeBourgios packed an entire show into the back of a Prius and drove across the country to install it at Superchief Gallery in NYC. I met with him last week as he told me about the trip over delicious burritos at Taqueria Cancun (which is right across the street from FFDG and serves what I think is the best burrito in the city) as the self proclaimed "Only overweight artist in the game" spilled all the details.

Ever Gold opened a new solo show by NYC based Henry Gunderson a couple Saturday nights ago and it was literally packed. So packed I couldn't actually see most of the art - but a big crowd doesn't seem like a problem. I got a good laugh at what I would call the 'cock climbing wall' as it was one of the few pieces I could see over the crowd. I haven't gotten a chance to go back and check it all out again, but I'm definitely going to as the paintings that I could get a peek at were really high quality and intruiguing. You should do the same.

The paintings in the show are each influenced by a musician, ranging from Freddy Mercury, to Madonna, to A Tribe Called Quest and they are so stylistically consistent with each musician's persona that they read as a cohesive body of work with incredible variation. If you told me they were each painted by a different person, I would not hesitate to believe you and it's really great to see a solo show with so much variety. The show is fun, poppy, very well done, and absolutely worth a look and maybe even a listen.

With rising rent in SF and knowing mostly other young artists without capitol, I desired a way to live rent free, have a space to do my craft, and get to see more of the world. Inspired by the many historical artists who have longed similar longings I discovered the beauty of artist residencies. Lilo runs Adhoc Collective in Vienna which not only has a fully equipped artists creative studio, but an indoor halfpipe, and private artist quarters. It was like a modern day castle or skate cathedral. It exists in almost a utopic state, totally free to those that apply and come with a real passion for both art and skateboarding

I just wanted to share with you a piece I recently finished which took me 4 years to complete. Titled "How To Lose Yourself Completely (The September Issue)", it consists of a copy of the September 2007 issue of Vogue magazine (the issue they made the documentary about) with all faces masked with a sharpie, and everything else entirely whited out. 840 pages of fun. -Bryan Schnelle

Jeremy Fish opens Hunting Trophies tonight, Saturday April 5th, at the Los Angeles based Mark Moore Gallery. The show features new work from Fish inside the "hunting lodge" where viewers climb inside the head of the hunter and explore the history of all the animals he's killed.

Beautiful piece entitled "The Albatross and the Shipping Container", Ink on Paper, Mounted to Panel, 47" Diameter, by San Francisco based Martin Machado now on display at FFDG. Stop in Saturday (1-6pm) to view the group show "Salt the Skies" now running through April 19th. 2277 Mission St. at 19th.

For some reason I thought it would be a good idea to quit my job, move out of my house, leave everything and travel again. So on August 21, 2013 I pushed a canoe packed full of gear into the headwaters of the Mississippi River in Lake Itasca, Minnesota, along with four of my best friends. Exactly 100 days later, I arrived at a marina near the Gulf of Mexico in a sailboat.

When works of art become commodities and nothing else, when every endeavor becomes “creative” and everybody “a creative,” then art sinks back to craft and artists back to artisans—a word that, in its adjectival form, at least, is newly popular again. Artisanal pickles, artisanal poems: what’s the difference, after all? So “art” itself may disappear: art as Art, that old high thing. Which—unless, like me, you think we need a vessel for our inner life—is nothing much to mourn.

Hard-working artisan, solitary genius, credentialed professional—the image of the artist has changed radically over the centuries. What if the latest model to emerge means the end of art as we have known it? --continue reading

"[Satire] is important because it brings out the flaws we all have and throws them up on the screen of another person," said Turner. “How they react sort of shows how important that really is.” Later, he added, "Charlie took a hit for everybody." -read on

NYC --- A new graffiti abatement program put forth by the police commissioner has beat cops carrying cans of spray paint to fill in and cover graffiti artists work in an effort to clean up the city --> Many cops are thinking it's a waste of resources, but we're waiting to see someone make a project of it. Maybe instructions for the cops on where to fill-in?

The NYPD is arming its cops with cans of spray paint and giving them art-class-style lessons to tackle the scourge of urban graffiti, The Post has learned.

Shootings are on the rise across the city, but the directive from Police Headquarters is to hunt down street art and cover it with black, red and white spray paint, sources said... READ ON

SAN FRANCISCO --- The Headlands Center for the Arts is preparing for their largest fundraiser of the year set to go down on June 4th at SOMArts here in the city. Art auction, food, drinks, live music, etc and all for helping to support a great institution up in the Marin Headlands. ~details

ABOUT HEADLANDSHeadlands Center for the Arts provides an unparalleled environment for the creative process and the development of new work and ideas. Through a range of programs for artists and the public, we offer opportunities for reflection, dialogue, and exchange that build understanding and appreciation for the role of art in society.

Just want to say congrats to Fecal Face's Rachel Ralph for graduating from SFAI with her masters in curatorial studies. Also want to congratulate Alex Ziv who also just got his MFA in painting. Also a high five to the talented Mario Ayala who also just graduated from SFAI as well! --- All super talented artists (thinkers), and we're excited to see what the future holds for them!

We haven't been featuring many interviews as of late. Let's change that up as we check in with a few local San Francisco artists like Kevin Earl Taylor here whom we studio visited back in 2009 (PHOTOS & VIDEO). It's been awhile, Kevin...

If you like guns and boobs, head on over to the Shooting Gallery; just don't expect the work to be all cheap ploys and hot chicks. With Make Stuff by Peter Gronquist (Portland) in the main space and Morgan Slade's Snake in the Eagle's Shadow in the project space, there is plenty spectacle to be had, but if you look just beyond it, you might actually get something out of the shows.

Fifty24SF opened Street Anatomy, a new solo show by Austrian artist Nychos a week ago last Friday night. He's been steadily filling our city with murals over the last year, with one downtown on Geary St. last summer, and new ones both in the Haight and in Oakland within the last few weeks, but it was really great to see his work up close and in such detail.

Congrats on our buddies at Needles and Pens on being open and rad for 11 years now. Mission Local did this little short video featuring Breezy giving a little heads up on what Needles and Pens is all about.

Matt Wagner recently emailed over some photos from The Hellion Gallery in Tokyo, who recently put together a show with AJ Fosik (Portland) called Beast From a Foreign Land. The gallery gave twelve of Fosik's sculptures to twelve Japanese artists (including Hiro Kurata who is currently showing in our group show Salt the Skies) to paint, burn, or build upon.

Backwoods Gallery in Melbourne played host to a huge group exhibition a couple of weeks back, with "Gold Blood, Magic Weirdos" Curated by Melbourne artist Sean Morris. Gold Blood brought together 25 talented painters, illustrators and comic artists from Australia, the US, Singapore, England, France and Spain - and marked the end of the Magic Weirdos trilogy, following shows in Perth in 2012 and London in 2013.

San Francisco based Fecal Pal Jeremy Fish opened his latest solo show Hunting Trophies at LA's Mark Moore Gallery last week to massive crowds and cabin walls lined with imagery pertaining to modern conquest and obsession.

Well, John Felix Arnold III is at it again. This time, he and Carolyn LeBourgios packed an entire show into the back of a Prius and drove across the country to install it at Superchief Gallery in NYC. I met with him last week as he told me about the trip over delicious burritos at Taqueria Cancun (which is right across the street from FFDG and serves what I think is the best burrito in the city) as the self proclaimed "Only overweight artist in the game" spilled all the details.

Ever Gold opened a new solo show by NYC based Henry Gunderson a couple Saturday nights ago and it was literally packed. So packed I couldn't actually see most of the art - but a big crowd doesn't seem like a problem. I got a good laugh at what I would call the 'cock climbing wall' as it was one of the few pieces I could see over the crowd. I haven't gotten a chance to go back and check it all out again, but I'm definitely going to as the paintings that I could get a peek at were really high quality and intruiguing. You should do the same.

The paintings in the show are each influenced by a musician, ranging from Freddy Mercury, to Madonna, to A Tribe Called Quest and they are so stylistically consistent with each musician's persona that they read as a cohesive body of work with incredible variation. If you told me they were each painted by a different person, I would not hesitate to believe you and it's really great to see a solo show with so much variety. The show is fun, poppy, very well done, and absolutely worth a look and maybe even a listen.

With rising rent in SF and knowing mostly other young artists without capitol, I desired a way to live rent free, have a space to do my craft, and get to see more of the world. Inspired by the many historical artists who have longed similar longings I discovered the beauty of artist residencies. Lilo runs Adhoc Collective in Vienna which not only has a fully equipped artists creative studio, but an indoor halfpipe, and private artist quarters. It was like a modern day castle or skate cathedral. It exists in almost a utopic state, totally free to those that apply and come with a real passion for both art and skateboarding

I just wanted to share with you a piece I recently finished which took me 4 years to complete. Titled "How To Lose Yourself Completely (The September Issue)", it consists of a copy of the September 2007 issue of Vogue magazine (the issue they made the documentary about) with all faces masked with a sharpie, and everything else entirely whited out. 840 pages of fun. -Bryan Schnelle

Jeremy Fish opens Hunting Trophies tonight, Saturday April 5th, at the Los Angeles based Mark Moore Gallery. The show features new work from Fish inside the "hunting lodge" where viewers climb inside the head of the hunter and explore the history of all the animals he's killed.

Beautiful piece entitled "The Albatross and the Shipping Container", Ink on Paper, Mounted to Panel, 47" Diameter, by San Francisco based Martin Machado now on display at FFDG. Stop in Saturday (1-6pm) to view the group show "Salt the Skies" now running through April 19th. 2277 Mission St. at 19th.

For some reason I thought it would be a good idea to quit my job, move out of my house, leave everything and travel again. So on August 21, 2013 I pushed a canoe packed full of gear into the headwaters of the Mississippi River in Lake Itasca, Minnesota, along with four of my best friends. Exactly 100 days later, I arrived at a marina near the Gulf of Mexico in a sailboat.

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